Invisiblewall.net: Gilberto Silva News

Source: The Guardian Online (via Rick Carter)

Here is a very praise-worthy article from The Guardian:

If it remains faintly ludicrous that the captain of Brazil cannot get a regular game at Arsenal, Gilberto Silva does not see the funny side. As he prepared to lead his country at Croke Park in tonight’s friendly against the Republic of Ireland, the midfielder could not conceal his frustration.

“At the moment I cannot see any future for me at the club,” he said. “I will see what will happen in the next few months and until the end [of the season], if I will get the chance to come back in the team. If not, I will see what I am going to do at the end. It’s been painful for me and to stay another season like this would kill me. I will sit down with Arsène [Wenger] and see what we can do to manage the situation.”

Gilberto, 31, who has 18 months to run on his contract, is one of football’s nice guys. Polite and respectful, he bears no grudge towards Wenger, the manager, or Mathieu Flamini, the Frenchman who has ousted him from the starting line-up. When potential suitors approached in January, most notably Juventus and Roma, he pledged to stay and fight. There have been no histrionics.
“I am not happy in the position I am in but I am trying to manage the situation,” he said. “I am very calm and I’m being professional as I’ve always been. We’ll see at the end of the season what is going to happen.”

Gilberto was Wenger’s first choice at the start of the season for the midfield anchor role alongside Cesc Fábregas. Flamini had grown frustrated at his own lack of opportunities and, although Wenger persuaded him to stay, he could not offer any guarantees that he would start ahead of Gilberto. Wenger even signed Lassana Diarra from Chelsea on August 31, as he feared that Flamini would not stay the course.

But when Gilberto missed the opening three matches of the season, because of his involvement with Brazil at the Copa América, Flamini seized his chance. Wenger had promised Flamini that, if he did so, he would stay in the team and, although Gilberto’s return in the final week of August presented him with a dilemma, he remained true to his word.

Flamini has been one of Arsenal’s players of the season; he is not only keeping Gilberto on the bench but he has seen off Diarra, a player ahead of him in the pecking order for France’s Euro 2008 squad. Diarra moved to Portsmouth last month.

Gilberto has been restricted to five Premier League starts, two of them out of position at centre-half, and it seems that only an injury to Flamini will offer him a route back. He refuses, though, to lament the timing of the Copa América, South American’s premier championship, which Brazil won with a 3-0 victory over Argentina in the final.

“I never regret to play for my country, this is inside of me, this is my pride,” Gilberto said. “If I receive a call from the [Brazil] manager, I never refuse that. That is why I don’t regret to play the Copa América.”

Gilberto, a World Cup winner in 2002, does not take his international responsibilities lightly and he will be called upon tonight to marshal an inexperienced team, as Dunga, the manager, bloods players for the Beijing Olympics, a tournament that Brazil are desperate to win for the first time. Anderson, the teenage Manchester United midfielder, is expected to win his third cap.

“It is fantastic to see how Anderson is adapting after his transfer from Porto [last summer],” said Gilberto. “He has changed completely his style but I think he can produce much more, given his quality.”

Gilberto anticipates a “tough test” from the Republic, who remain under the caretaker charge of Don Givens, as their efforts to appoint a successor to Steve Staunton drag on. He is well aware that “everybody wants to beat Brazil”.

Well done to David Hytner for writing such an unbiased article.

And on the note of Gilberto expressing his doubt at his Arsenal future; I think it is very easy to sympathise with him. It’s a credit to Gilberto that while he’s spent most of the season on the bench, he’s kept so professional (as he kindly points out). If he wants to go to another club to actually play football, he cannot be blamed.

Good luck Bert – but keep trying to break back into the team at Arsenal!